UTEP women's basketball: Miners come back for victory

UTEP's Kayla Thornton rises above several Texas State defenders for two points during their game Saturday at the Don Haskins Center. (Michael Patrick Reese / UTEP Athletics)

All the excuses the UTEP women's basketball team needs for offensive struggles are sitting on the bench wearing street clothes and knee braces.

Poor perimeter defense and getting beaten down the court on fast breaks aren't as excusable.

After 31 minutes of struggles in those areas against a scrappy, explosive Texas State team Saturday night, UTEP found its bearings and found a way to win a close game in the final two minutes. Trailing most of the night, UTEP closed with a 9-2 run to escape with a thrilling 88-81 victory.

"It was an offensive game, not a lot of defense on either end," coach Keitha Adams said after her team improved to 6-1. "I wasn't happy with our defense. At halftime, they were on pace for 92 points. Our transition defense wasn't good.

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Bret Bloomquist

"But the intensity picked up."

Three days after New Mexico State bombed its way to a victory over the Miners, Texas State nearly did the same, burying its first five 3-point attempts to give it a lead it spent most of the night protecting. The Bobcats, though, only finished 8-of-22 beyond the arc, which was still far better than UTEP's 1-of-11.

"It was a little frustrating, not executing what we had gone over," said Kayla Thornton, who broke out of a mini-scoring slump with a career-high 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. "What happened to us at NMSU, they had 10 threes, that killed us. I saw us going down that road again. We couldn't do that again."

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"I thought, 'Here we go again,' " said sophomore Syerra Davis, who had seven points in her best game as a Miner. "We had to stop them."

UTEP came out hot as well, but was running uphill all night after Texas State's early barrage, and was down 66-61 with 9:30 remaining. Thornton then erased that almost instantly with two fast-break baskets and a fast-break assist in a 50-second span to give UTEP its second lead of the game.

Still, the night came down to the final 90 seconds when it was tied 79-79. Unlike three days ago when UTEP couldn't make the key plays it needed, the Miners could on this night, and the two biggest offensive ones came from a pair of players who were non-factors on that end most of the game.

First, Chrishauna Parker followed an Anete Steinberga miss for her sixth point to put the Miners ahead 81-79, then she rebounded a miss on the other end. At that point, UTEP was 0-of-10 from 3-point range, Kelli Willingham was scoreless and UTEP's string of 206 consecutive games with a 3-pointer was on the brink.

Willingham ended that and most of the suspense with a back-breaking 3 at the 30-second mark for an 84-79 lead. When Parker rebounded another miss with 14 seconds remaining -- her sixth board of the game and second in the final minute -- UTEP was home.

In the final four minutes, Texas State had two field goals and two free throws on nine possessions, and one of those baskets came with two seconds remaining.

"We can build off this," Adams said. "The bench did a really nice job and Kayla had a great game. That gave us a big spark. I told them afterward, this was a team win, we just have to build."

The scoring was fairly concentrated. Steinberga poured in 22 points as she and Thornton accounted for 51 of the team's 88 points and 37 of their 72 shots. UTEP also made 23-of-27 free throws to continue a hot streak from the line.

Texas State made 30-of-70 shots for 43 percent, but as was the case with everything UTEP did, the Miner defense got better as the night went on. The Bobcats made eight of their first 11 shots, but was 37 percent the rest of the night.

What Adams was most excited about was that no starter played more than 33 minutes and the bench contributed 67 minutes in its best showing of the year.

"We have to guard the ball better, but that's a good team. They beat TCU and played Oklahoma State tough," Adams said of Texas State, which fell to 3-3. "They've got a nice team."

UTEP's was a little bit better.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359. Follow him on Twitter @bretbloomquist.

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